I am sorry this happens to you ): I know what you mean about playing the bitch getting old. I always feel pigeonholed as the bitch or the sweet little girl, and truth is I’m neither. All I can think of is butching up in the workplace (pants, button downs, sensible shoes) and not engaging [...]

Idk, I am generally appreciative of people caring about my safety, so long as they take a polite no for an answer when I’m comfortable on my own. Or do your guy friends refuse to let you decline their offers? That I would find frustrating. I have had some pretty negative experiences on familiar walks [...]

and if she was an out gay girl in Damascus, it would have been so unusual that her identity would have been verifiable… that is a good perspective, I was thinking of it simply in terms of the loss of hope / a role model, but I hadn’t considered the safety implications. From what I [...]

But if you were alone, and you got emotionally involved in the great and inspiring story of this person who was so inspiring / you related to, and then it transpired this person had been fabricating her life the whole time… wouldn’t you feel even more alone? I would. It would have been great and [...]

Agh it is true, I have seen people who are GLBTIQ Syrians / Arabs posting that she inspires them and gives them hope. I feel so sorry for them as they realise a role model was just an elaborate lie.

I have less sympathy for her, notwithstanding the raft of mental health issues she so obviously has. I think a lot of people who followed her are going to switch off from the situation in Syria, because of feelings of hurt and betrayal the hoax caused. A lot of people really looked up to her [...]

Hi Annika, there’s something I would really like to ask you guys, I think it would help me interact more sensitively with trans* people. Unfortunately I am technologically challenged at using the Autostraddle messaging service and it doesn’t seem to let me message either of you. Do I need to add you and Sebastian as [...]

On reflection, that shouldn’t have been about “seeing past” or “looking past” appearance at all… as I don’t think anyone’s appearance is something deceptive that needs to be disregarded before who they are becomes apparent. It is more like, I hope people have been able to see you clearly, and for myself I am interested [...]

Yeah, it seems we are really talking about overall body shape, not just height here… overall gender presentation I guess. I was so surprised to find how entrenched these assumptions were, I thought that men who had sex with men would be the most clued in on how it actually worked! I am sorry that [...]

I think Icelandic people are quite tall, comparatively speaking

I think it is true of people from the Nordic countries more generally, I am 5’2 and it was a bit of a shock boarding a plane to Copenhagen seeing how tall the Danes were!

A good friend of mine is a gay man who is around 5’3 and a very slender build. He is ALWAYS often assumed to be ‘effeminate’, whatever that means, and also a bottom… I swear, it is purely because of his physique. He actually has serious amounts of machismo and has a marked preference for [...]

“A consular official even posted a comment beneath that blog post imploring the blogger’s cousin to call or write to the United States embassy. The official also wrote, on Tuesday: “We have been trying to locate records for Amina but have had no luck so far. We will continue to look and once we have [...]

you = win.

I take that point, and the military in my country doesn’t work like that, so it’s not at the forefront of my mind when I read stories about the US armed forces. I wasn’t meaning to imply that they were ‘truly interested and excited’ about serving though… just that I don’t understand why someone would [...]

Word.

I would like to agree with this, I am a reader of Amina’s, but I thought she said she felt she was able to use her real name because of her family political connections, which are very well established? If that is the case, and neither her name or that of her family is known, [...]

Are there really people out there who are willing to risk life and limb for their country in foreign combat zones… but not to work with queers??

I just do NOT understand.

The attempt is worthwhile, at any rate

This article and your photos are awesome, thanks for sharing with us an experience of a part of the world that is so different to anything I have seen

It is! I like it more than beef or lamb. I don’t know why more people don’t eat it!